The USA, seen through international eyes

Visitors from afar offer best glimpse of American way's enduring appeal

July 05, 2013|By Ron Grossman

Parry Wong, left, Kelly Wong, 6, Grace Wong, 9, and May Wong wait with their luggage before leaving for Hong Kong from the International Terminal on Tuesday June 25, 2013. The Wong family moved from Hong Kong 24 years ago in hopes of better job opportunities. People come from all over the world through the International Terminal at Chicago's O'Hare Airport everyday. (Carolyn Van Houten, Chicago Tribune)

It's inevitably a case of hurry up and wait when our daughter, who teaches school in Bangkok, comes home during summer vacation. We race out to O'Hare International Airport, then cool our heels during the hour or so it takes her to collect baggage and clear customs.

That would be frustrating, especially during her most recent visit, when she brought a newborn granddaughter we hadn't yet met. But at the international terminal, the delay always provides extra measure of joy.

We get to see arrivals from the world over, speaking myriad languages, wearing a rainbow of costumes and united in a common sentiment. Save for a few bedraggled business types too tired to care, it shows in the look on their faces. They're delighted to be in America. Some first-time visitors come with a crystal-clear vision of our country, among them Chia-Shan Tsai, a pharmacist from Taiwan, who recently arrived for a summer program at the University of Illinois at Chicago

Her first days on campus could be problematic. Her English is limited, but she had just enough vocabulary to express her sense of what the U.S. is all about. "Liberty," Tsai said. "Liberty ... statue."

With the help of a traveling companion, she explained that she sees the Statue of Liberty as standing for a country where people can do and think as they please, without fearing that if they offend the government, there will be consequences.

Some of us might take a jaundiced view of Americans' liberty in the wake of revelations that the government has been keeping close tabs on our phone calls and email. Others have no patience with pundits and civil libertarians who make a fuss over what seems to them a reasonable means of trying to keep up our guard against terrorist attacks, like the bombings at the Boston Marathon.

Americans are currently divided on a bunch of issues. Some applaud the U.S. Supreme Court's rulings on gay marriage. Others are offended that the justices would presume to trod on the Bible's verdict that homosexual acts carry the death penalty.

Mostly what Americans can agree on lies on the negative side of the ledger: a lousy economy, a middle class barely able keep its head above water, unending big-city gang violence.

So for an antidote to obsessing over those gloomy thoughts, spend an afternoon at O'Hare's international terminal. You might meet someone like Petrit Balla, who with his wife, Hamedije, came from Albania to see relatives who immigrated here. It wasn't their first visit — they've come before, always leaving with the same feeling.

"America is the leader of the world," he said, one of their children translating. Then he proudly held up an Illinois driver's license. How often can he use it? Maybe a couple of times, every few years? But as if to explain its symbolic meaning, Petrit Balla said: "America is good."

Of course, not every foreign visitor arrives at O'Hare wearing rose-colored glasses. The U.S. has gotten bad press in Europe in recent years. Rightly or wrongly, we stand accused of being cozy with dictators and slow to hear cries for help from those who would be free of them. A younger generation that didn't experience World War II doesn't always offset our shortcomings against our achievements of liberating Asia from Japanese tyranny and Europe from the Nazis' deadly hands.

Korolina Barska, a 23-year-old from Poland here to visit an aunt, put her ambivalence this way: "I still feel positive about your country, only maybe a little less so than before."

Then arrived living proof that, if Americans sometimes screw up, our hearts are generally in the right places. A couple of dozen children got off a plane from Latvia wearing green T-shirts lettered: "Summertime In America." Orphans, they came from institutions and foster homes for a few weeks of family life with ordinary Americans, who had bought their tickets so they could take them into their homes.

Their own children held up homemade signs reading: "Welcome Sintija" and "Welcome Artsenije." Flight attendants, some having worked other international flights, scooped up kids going on to other destinations and escorted them on connecting flights.

Sintija, a 16-year-old whose Naperville host family asked that, for security reasons, her last name not be used, gave her initial reaction to America. "People smile," she said. "People are happy."

A few yards away was a group of high school students from Spain with strong feelings about what America has to offer: "Jobs!" they responded in chorus. Their country's economy is in far worse shape than ours. But some could see a different part of the picture. "We see Hollywood films," said Guillermo Gonzalez, who was all too conscious of the violence not just on the screen but on America's mean streets.

Still, he was among perhaps half of the group whose hands shot straight up when asked if they'd like not just to visit, but to live in America.

Should you want to experience what those Spanish teenagers were expressing, take a vacation abroad. Sample the cafe life and incomparable cuisine of Paris. Walk the Roman forum and breathe the same cultural air that Caesar did. If you are athletically inclined, climb Machu Picchu to see the temple the Incas built there.

If you're anything like me, on the return flight your mind will be suspended between there and here, comparing the glories of other countries to what ours has to offer. Arriving at O'Hare, there will be the usual hassle of baggage slow to be unloaded. At passport control, the agent will look at you, then at your photo, and repeat the scrutiny. The common denominator of border-control officers everywhere is a suspicious look that says: "You don't think I'm going to fall for that inept forgery."

But then comes the moment that, for me, makes the whole trip worthwhile.